


Unfinished Business

by captainraz



Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: F/F, Ghost Cat, ridiculous fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-08
Updated: 2017-01-08
Packaged: 2018-09-15 20:44:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9256313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainraz/pseuds/captainraz
Summary: Holtzmann turned back to Erin with the happiest, goofiest grin she’d ever seen plastered all over her face. “Look at it Erin. It’s a ghostkitty”





	

**Author's Note:**

> Slightly belated birthday present for [envexenveritas](https://archiveofourown.org/users/envexenveritas/pseuds/envexenveritas).

“Oh my God, that is the cutest thing I have ever seen!”

“Holtz, Holtz no,” Erin said, running after the over-excited engineer. Excited Holtz was a common occurrence on busts, but the high pitched shrieking Erin had just encountered was definitely new. And concerning, very concerning.

The cutest thing Holtzmann had ever seen turned out to be a ghost. Which sort of threw Erin for a loop. “Holtz, what?”

Holtzmann turned back to Erin with the happiest, goofiest grin she’d ever seen plastered all over her face. “Look at it Erin. It’s a ghost _kitty_.”

Following the line of Holtz’s arm as she gestured wildly Erin saw that there was indeed, a spectral cat sat licking its paws. It looked just like a regular cat only blue and translucent, and Erin was fairly sure cats weren’t supposed to drip ectoplasm everywhere.

“No.” Her reaction was immediate and instinctive. “You can’t keep it.”

The grin on Holtz’s face collapsed into a pout. “But–”

“No buts Holtz, we can’t keep it. Abby is allergic–”

“Not to non-corporeal felines!” Holtz protested. Erin continued, talking over her.

“–and even if somehow Abby isn’t allergic to this one we still can’t keep it. We’re the Ghostbusters. We can’t keep a ghost as a pet.”

Holtz looked like Erin had stomped on all her favourite toys and told her Santa Claus didn’t exist in one fell swoop. “But–” Erin had never seen Holtzmann cry before but it looked like that might be about to change. “Kitty.” She sniffed. “She’s not hurting anyone.”

Erin softened at the clear distress on her friend’s face. “I’m sorry Holtz, but you know as well as I do that she—it—doesn’t belong on this plane. We have to send her back.”

Holtz looked genuinely heartbroken. “I know, but I honestly don’t think I can do it. Could you?” She gestured to the corner with her shoulder.

“Sure Holtz,” Erin said. “I’ll do it for you.” She was just reaching for her proton wand when the radios crackled.

“Could y’all get your asses up here and give us a hand?” Patty yelled. “We’ve made contact and this is one mean motherfucking ghost.”

Erin and Holtz looked at each other; in their excitement over the cat they’d forgotten the actual reason they were here. Both of them broke into a run as they went to assist their friends. By the time the class five asshole had been shoved into the trap both of them had forgotten about their encounter, too tired, too bruised and too covered in slime to worry about harmless little ghost cats. They needed a shower and stat.

*

That might have been the end of it, if not for the natural willfulness of cats, alive or dead.

*

Erin slipped on something sticky at the top of the stairs. She lifted her foot and was met with a familiar substance. “Holtz!” Erin yelled, not even stopping to think whether there could be another culprit, because really, who else could have been responsible? Erin hadn’t been slimed in days.

Holtzmann came wandering out of the lab, wiping her slightly smoking goggles on her green jacket. “You wanted me, hot stuff?”

Erin ignored the blatant flirting to concentrate on the matter at hand, namely that she’d nearly broken her neck falling down the stairs. “You really need to be more careful with your experiments, Holtz,” she said, chastising. “You can’t just leave blobs of ectoplasm lying around the firehouse. Especially at the top of the stairs.”

Holtz frowned. “I’m not doing anything with ectoplasm at the moment,” she said, looking utterly confused.

“How’d this get out here then?” Erin asked. What she’d slipped on was definitely ectoplasm. She’d been up close and personal with the stuff often enough to identify it. “We don’t have a ghost on the loose do we?”

“I’ll check the containment unit,” Holtz said immediately, heading back into the lab. Erin followed because if there was a problem with the containment unit full of all their captures Holtz might need back up and fast. Five minutes of tinkering, swearing and slightly concerning bangs later, Holtz declared that the containment unit was fine.

“What caused the ectoplasm on the stairs then?” Erin asked, now even more convinced the stuff was out for her personally.

“Just cos the containment unit isn’t showing any leaks doesn’t mean that we don’t have a spectre running around somewhere. We are a bit of a hotspot for ghostly activity, it was probably inevitable we’d attracted _something_ sooner or later.”

Erin sighed. “I suppose you’re right. I’ll go get the PKE meter. You want me to call Abby and Patty?”

Holtz shook her head. “Nah. If we’ve got a gribbly running around and we’ve not noticed it’s probably something small. Two of us should be able to handle it. Oooh I could test out the miniature proton pack I’ve been working on! Doesn’t hold much charge but we should be able to generate enough juice to get rid of our leetle friend,” she said, putting on an accent for the last two words before bounding to the other side of the lab to get her prototype.

Erin resisted the urge to pinch her nose. It was just like Holtz to want to test new equipment out when they potentially had a ghost running around headquarters, but she was so excited about it Erin couldn’t bring herself to say anything about it. She just strapped on her own pack when she grabbed the PKE meter, just in case.

The trail of ectoplasm and psychokinetic energy led, bizarrely, to Holtz’s room.

“Dare I go in there?” Erin joked as she stood in front of Holtz’s bedroom door with a rapidly spinning PKE meter in her hand. “It’s not gonna blow up when I walk in there is it?”

“Nah you’re good. Just stay away from the pile of stuff in the corner and you’ll be fine.”

Holtz’s advice was vague and mostly unhelpful since she hadn’t defined stuff or which corner was the problem but Erin resisted the urge to comment. She figured that if she went near anything too dangerous Holtz would give her a shout.

“Ready?”

“For you hot stuff? Always.”

Erin drew her proton wand and opened the door. She half expected a highly malevolent entity to throw itself at her the moment she entered the room but nothing happened. Holtz’s room was somehow both tidier and messier than expected but there was no sign of a ghost.

“You know, this wasn’t how I imagined getting you in my bedroom for the first time Gilbert,” Holtz said with a grin and a salacious wink.

“Could you stop flirting for just a second and tell me if anything in here is different?”

Holtz obediently looked around her room, her gaze immediately zeroing in on a strange lump in the middle of the bed. “Ruh roh,” she said. “I don’t remember leaving that there.”

They looked at each other, agreeing on a plan of attack via a series of complicated eyebrow twitches (and in Holtz’s case, winks). Erin took a deep breath to push down the anxiety she still felt when taking on a ghost while Holtz readied her miniature proton gun, which looked suspiciously like a Star Trek phaser. Erin drew the bedcovers back, fully expecting a face full of ectoplasm and instead was met with a curled up, fast asleep–

“Kitty!” Holtz cried gleefully. “I’d almost forgotten about this little cutie.”

Erin groaned. “Me too. How’d it get here though?” She eyed Holtz suspiciously.

Holtz just shrugged. “She must have followed me home.” A slow grin spread across her face and Erin knew exactly what was coming next.

“You still can’t keep her.”

“But–”

“No buts. We can’t have a ghost as a pet.”

“Okay, but consider this:” she took a deep breath and launched into a speech that had a similar cadence to the one she’d given in the bar after saving New York. “We don’t really know what factors cause a spectre to remain on this plane after death. I mean we’re assuming it’s something along the lines of unfinished business but what possible unfinished business could a cat have? We also don’t really know what affects the malevolence level of a ghost and since Pearl here has probably been here for weeks without us noticing she’s probably pretty benign and might be an excellent case study for us. I mean it’s possible that only human entities are capable of being dangerous and this little kitty could be completely harmless.”

Erin’s brain tried to keep up with the excellent points Holtz was making but she could only focus on one thing. “Wait. Pearl?”

Holtz grinned. “Yeah. She needs a name and she kinda looks pearlescent don’t you think?”

The cat in question woke up from her nap, eyed the two humans disdainfully and started cleaning herself, small drops of ectoplasm dropping onto the sheets as she licked. Erin groaned. If Holtz had named her then she was already attached and it was going to be impossible to talk her out of it. She closed her eyes and counted to ten to stop herself saying something she might regret.

“Holtz,” she said, opening her eyes. She didn’t get much further than that because in the ten seconds she’d had her eyes closed Holtz had crawled onto the bed and was now stroking the ghost kitty.

“Come on Erin,” she said, her eyes pleading. “Can we keep her? Please.”

Erin knew, deep down, that she couldn’t say no to that face.

“Abby is gonna kill us.”

*

As expected Abby went absolutely ballistic when she found out about the cat. Pearl, Erin had to keep reminding herself. Their pet ghost had a name.

And she was their pet. As apocalyptic as Abby’s rage had been at first, eventually she’d come around to the idea. Especially when she discovered Pearl didn’t set off her allergies. In any case Abby was outvoted, Patty turning out to be a surprising ally in the pro-Pearl camp. She’d said “as long as she stays away from my books I’m cool with it” and that was that. So far Pearl seemed to be holding up her end of the bargain, and everything was fairly peaceful.

Pearl was actually a pretty good station cat. She mostly stuck to herself and did her own thing, only occasionally pestering Holtz or Erin in the lab and then she was appeased with a small amount of attention. It was possible to pet Pearl, as long as you didn’t mind getting a little bit slimy in the process. Since they were the ones who’d found her Holtz and Erin ended up in charge of looking after Pearl but she turned out to be pretty low maintenance. Since she was already dead she didn’t eat, she didn’t poop and she didn’t rack up any expensive vets bills. She did however keep leaving ectoplasm hairballs lying around, even though none of them could work out how she was producing them.

All in all, having a ghost cat around resulted in only a minor increase in the amount of slime they dealt with on a day to day basis, which they were all willing to put up with since she was so affectionate and amusing when she wasn’t sleeping in Holtz or Erin’s beds. And Holtz managed to develop an ectoplasm resistant material (for the beds as well as the jumpsuits) which turned out to be great for everyone.

Time passed and Pearl became part of the family.

*

Erin sat with her back against her bed, trying to control her breathing. She was having a panic attack, there was no doubt about that, even if what had happened in no way warranted one. Anxiety was an asshole like that.

Someone knocked at the door, three quiet raps in quick succession which were still further apart than Erin’s heart beats were.

“Erin, you in there?” It was Holtz, sounding uncharacteristically small and uncertain. Erin didn’t reply, too busy trying to breathe to say anything. “I’m sorry about the kiss,” Holtz continued, and she sounded distraught. “I didn’t– I thought–” She sighed, the sound rattling through the door. “I really am sorry. I thought it was something you wanted too but I must’ve read the signals wrong or something. Won’t happen again, I promise. I guess I’ll uh, I’ll leave you alone then.”

There was the sound of Holtz’s boots retreating, and then there was only Erin’s ragged breathing and her thoughts.

It wasn’t as though Holtzmann kissing her had been a complete surprise. She was aware that they effectively lived together and owned a cat together and she was aware that fulfilled certain stereotypes. She was also aware that Holtzmann was a very attractive person, and that she had what could be described as a small crush on the Ghostbuster' eccentric engineer. So no, the kiss hadn’t been unexpected, or even unwelcome, it had just sent her brain into a spiral of anxiety and self doubt and Erin had no idea how she was going to fix this.

Just then Erin heard a soft mrrp by her elbow and looked up. Pearl had pushed her way through the closed door (as evidenced by the fresh patch of ectoplasm in the middle of the wood) and was looking at her with as much concern as a dead cat could muster. Erin reached out to scratch behind her ears, unconcerned about getting sticky. She felt her breathing level off almost immediately.

“Hey, have you come to make sure I’m alright?” she asked quietly. Pearl chirped back and headbutted Erin’s hand.

Erin stroked Pearl’s ghostly fur for a bit while the cat chirrupped and purred at her. It was oddly soothing, and Erin found the anxiety bleeding out of her without the need for medication. After another insistent bout of headbutting Erin decided to reply to the cat.

“You wanna know why I’m hiding up here fighting off a panic attack huh?” she said, scratching behind her ears. Pearl mrrped in reply. “Yeah me too girl.”

She sighed. “I don’t even really know why I panicked. I’ve known what’s been happening between us for a while but I guess I thought I had more time to prepare. That maybe she’d let me make the first move.”

Pearl meowed loudly before resuming her rumbling purr.

“Of course I wanted to kiss her. I just… froze. She probably thinks I hate her now.”

More headbutting.

“You’re right, of course, I’ll go talk to her. Just… what do I say?”

Pearl gave her the most disdainful look Erin had ever seen on a cat (which was saying something) and nipped at Erin’s fingers. It didn’t hurt, but it felt cold and left more sticky ectoplasm on them.

“Alright alright! I guess I’ll think of something.” Erin stood up and took a deep breath. “Wish me luck.”

Pearl didn’t say anything in reply, she was too busy licking her bum.

“Typical,” Erin muttered as she left the room.

*

“She’s on the roof,” Abby said, not looking up from whatever she was doing.

“How did you…?” Erin started, before trailing off. She was Abby, that was how. “Never mind.” Erin started back up the stairs.

“Try not to break her heart,” Abby called after her.

Holtz was indeed on the roof, stood near the edge with her back to the door. She was often still, more often than her eccentric personality and laissez faire attitude to explosions might suggest, but Erin had never seen her this motionless. She was more like a nattily dressed statue than a person, which meant whatever was going on in her head was taking up all her concentration.

Erin stood next to Holtz, their arms not quite touching, and looked out at the city for a while before saying “penny for your thoughts.”

Holtz blew out a breath that was more like the offspring of a raspberry and a whale’s mating call. “Not sure you want to know what’s goin’ on in my noggin right now.”

“I always want to know what’s going on in your head Holtz.”

“Honestly it’s mostly just an impression of Hagrid right now.” Erin shot her a look of utter confusion. “‘I shouldn’t have done that, I should not have done that,’” Holtz elaborated, and Erin had to stifle a laugh. Even though she was embarrassed and hurting she was still do adorably _Holtz_ and Erin loved that about her.

“Sorry I freaked out on you,” she said, brushing her arm against Holtz’s gently.

Holtz shook her head, the first time she’d moved anything but her lips since Erin had come up to the roof. “It’s fine,” she said. “Misread the signs is all. Wouldn’t be the first time. Probably won’t be the last.”

Erin felt a surge of anxiety bubble up in her chest. “Incorrect conclusion. You don’t have access to all the data.”

“Whaaat?” Holtz drawled, turning her head to look directly at Erin. “Explain.”

“You’ve always been so patient with me I guess I thought you’d let me be the one to make the first move. So when you moved first my brain sort of short circuited. But I don’t want you to think it was unwelcome. Sorry I was taking too long.”

Holtz’s eyes were wide as they moved over Erin’s face, presumably searching for signs of deception, that Erin was lying or something. Erin knew she wasn’t lying so there was no deception to discover.

“So… you’re not mad that I kissed you?” Holtz said. She must have found what she was looking for because there was a note of hope in her voice that made Erin’s heart skip a beat.

“I’m not mad,” she said. “I was just thrown.” Erin smiled. “You might have noticed I’m a little bit neurotic. I like lists and plans and knowing exactly how things are gonna go. I’m messed up, I know.”

Holtz nudged her. “Hey, me too.”

“I had this idea in my head of how things were gonna go and when it didn’t go according to plan I panicked. A bit. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to kiss you.”

The grin on Holtz’s face was enormous. It looked like she was back to her usual self. “Does that mean I get to kiss you again. Or… would you prefer it if you kissed me?” Holtz turned her body to face Erin fully, shoulders relaxed and arms by her sides.

Erin smiled. “I’d like that.” She stepped closer to Holtz, her heart racing in her chest but in a good way, not the way it did when she was about to have a panic attack. Slowly, taking her time, she slipped her hand into Holtz’s, pressed their chests together and she could feel Holtz’s breath on her face, feel the tight control she was keeping over her body.

“You’re shaking, Holtz,” Erin said, their lips barely inches apart.

“Trying to resist the urge to kiss you,” Holtz said, voice thick. “It’s been pretty much overwhelming since the day I met you.”

Erin’s heart, impossibly, sped up. “And now?”

“Pretty much impossible. I think I deserve a medal for resisting.”

“I have another reward in mind,” Erin said, and leaned in.

The first thought that went through her head was that Holtz’s lips were soft, even softer than they looked. Technically this was their second kiss but Erin had been too busy panicking to fully appreciate the first. She dedicated herself to memorizing every single detail about this one.

Holtz tasted sweet, probably because she’d been sneaking candy as a snack instead of the veggies Patty kept trying to get her to eat. The smell of solder clung to her skin, hot and metallic, along with the faint scent of singed hair. Erin thought it smelled like home.

Her arms came to wrap around Holtz’s body entirely of their own accord and she was surprised by how small she seemed. It was easy to forget that Holtz’s personality took up far more space than she did; Erin often thought Holtz could light up an entire room with just her smile. She was strong though, and Erin had never felt safer than she did in that moment.

She drew Holtz’s lower lip into her mouth, sucking lightly, which elicited a groan from the back of Holtz’s throat.

Erin wanted to throw caution to the wind, forget about her lists and plans for how this should go so she could fuck Holtz right there on the roof. She might very well have done had their kiss not been interrupted by an insistent patting against Erin’s elbow.

“What the?” she mumbled when her mouth was her own again. She looked down to find Pearl looking up at the both of them with an expectant look on her face.

Holtz immediately burst out laughing. “I guess someone’s a bit jealous of all the attention I’m giving you,” Holtz said when she could breathe again. It hadn’t escaped Erin’s notice that their arms were still wrapped around each other.

“More like she wanted to make sure I was doing as I was told,” Erin muttered.

“What?”

“Pearl helped me calm down from my anxiety attack” Erin admitted, only slightly embarrassed. “She convinced me to come find you and talk about what happened.”

“She did, huh?” Holtz looked absolutely delighted with this news and reached out to scratch Pearl behind her ears. Her other arm remained wrapped around Erin’s waist. Holtz murmured nonsense to the cat for a few moments before looking back at Erin with a crooked smile on her face. “You know, I’ve always wanted to own a cat with my girlfriend.”

Erin rolled her eyes. “Please, she’s not _our_ cat, she’s clearly yours.”

Holtz’s grin widened. “So you’re not refuting the girlfriend part?”

“Why would I want to do that?” Erin said softly.

“Awesome,” Holtz replied, pulling her in for another kiss.

Erin had to agree with her; it was rather awesome.

*

Much, much later, when Erin and Holtz were cuddled up together in bed, Pearl pushed her way through the door with a loud miaow.

“Hey girl,” Holtz murmured, not moving her face from where it was pressed against the back of Erin’s neck. Pearl chirrupped in response and burrowed under the covers between Holtz and Erin’s feet, leaving them both lightly coated in ectoplasm around the ankles.

“She seems happier since we got together,” Erin said against her pillow.

“Hmmmm,” Holtz agreed, the sound of it tickling Erin’s skin. “You think that was her unfinished business? Making sure we got together.”

“Maybe,” Erin said, blowing out a breath. Down at the end of the bed, Pearl curled up and started to purr. “If that was the case wouldn’t she have passed over by now? Maybe she’s here to make sure we _stay_ together.”

“No problems there babe. I’m not ever leaving you,” Holtz said sleepily, somehow snuggling even closer. Erin’s heart skipped a beat and Pearl’s purring intensified.

“Glad to hear it,” Erin said. She’d mostly drifted off to sleep when Pearl decided to crawl up her back and curl up on the pillow. Erin opened one eye to glare at her. “Pain in the ass cat.” Behind her, Holtz was sniggering. “Pain in the ass Holtz too,” she said, pretending to be grumpy.

“Whatever, you love me.”

“I do,” Erin admitted. “I’m glad I have you.” Pearl stood up, turned around in a circled and headbutted Erin in the face before settling back down. “Yes, yes I love you too Pearl. I’m glad you joined our little family.”

“Me too,” Holtz murmured into Erin’s neck as she fell asleep. “Me too.”


End file.
